As smart manufacturing accelerates, tightening is no longer just simple "screw driving"; it is a critical process that determines assembly quality and efficiency, and stands as one of the core processes with the highest technical barriers and data value in industrial manufacturing. Given the deepening automation and digitalization in manufacturing, tightening tools have evolved from the pneumatic era to the electrification era. Today, driven by both AI technology and industrial chain upgrades, the tightening industry is officially ushering in a new era of digitalization. The new generation of intelligent tightening tools aims to break down equipment information silos and solve the pain point of traditional power tools that "only execute without thinking." It endows tools with the capabilities of perception, autonomous decision-making, and risk prediction, achieving a leap from experience-based execution to intelligent control. User demands have also upgraded from traditional post-inspection of defective results to adaptive, self-diagnostic, and proactive risk prediction, truly giving tightening tools a "brain."
01. Tightening Enters the AI Era: What Changes are Occurring in the Industry? The technological evolution of tightening tools is essentially the result of evolving demands in manufacturing. According to data from MIR Research, the global market size for electric tightening tools will exceed 20 billion RMB in 2025. As the iteration speed of products such as NEVs (New Energy Vehicles), smart home appliances, and 3C electronics accelerates, product structures are becoming increasingly complex. Production lines simultaneously face demands for multi-variety, small-batch, and rapid changeover, elevating the importance of the tightening process. In the future, driven by market demands in China and North America, global performance will show a sustained growth trend. Coupled with the maturing of technologies like AI and robotics, automated and intelligent tightening holds significant room for growth. However, as manufacturing further moves towards flexibility and digitalization, traditional intelligent tightening tools are beginning to face new challenges. Basic level: Manual tightening suffers from low efficiency and no traceable data, while low-cost tightening guns fail to meet accuracy standards; Automation level: Separately purchased equipment has poor compatibility and long debugging cycles, with prominent issues in tightening consistency, screw recognition, flexible changeover, and data traceability; Core shortcomings: Reliance on experience-based programming cannot cope with on-site variables, defects can only be discovered after the fact, and process optimization relies on manual analysis; Furthermore, as the iteration speed of downstream products such as NEVs accelerates, their requirements for tightening stability, digitalization, and flexible production have been significantly upgraded. Intelligent electric tightening tools represent a typical multi-disciplinary precision manufacturing industry characterized by high technical barriers and high gross margins. Its development is deeply driven by the application demands of high-end manufacturing. For a long time, the high-end tightening market has had high requirements for product accuracy, stability, reliability, and process adaptability, forming relatively obvious technical and application barriers. From the manufacturer's perspective, international brands represented by Atlas Copco, Ingersoll Rand, and Desoutter still maintain strong competitiveness in the high-end assembly field, relying on long-term technical accumulation, mature product systems, and brand influence. They especially possess a deep customer base in high-end manufacturing scenarios such as automotive. Meanwhile, manufacturing demands are shifting from the procurement of standardized, highly reliable single equipment to comprehensive solutions involving localized services, flexible applications, and system integration, which also provides new entry space for domestic manufacturers. In recent years, enterprises represented by ROBODEEP, Danikor, and Lixing have accelerated breakthroughs relying on localized services, cost advantages, and rapid response capabilities. The industry as a whole remains in a stage of technological upgrading and market landscape transformation. In the past, enterprises competed on torque accuracy, tool reliability, service life, and price; today, there are further requirements for tools to possess capabilities in data acquisition, process judgment, anomaly identification, and system connectivity. Wireless technology, AI integration, advanced tightening strategies, and modular flexible design are becoming important directions for technological evolution in the industry. In other words, tightening tools are transforming from "tools" that merely execute actions into "intelligent nodes" that connect processes, equipment, data, and quality.
02. ROBODEEP: Redefining "Tightening" with AI It is precisely under this change that ROBODEEP has not limited AI to the tightening tools themselves, but further extended it to robotics, vision, motion control, and industrial software. If traditional automation solves "automating the tightening action," then ROBODEEP further attempts to solve "enabling robots to understand assembly tasks and possess the ability to autonomously complete assembly." To this end, ROBODEEP provides a one-stop, full-scenario tightening solution covering the entire process from product design and screw selection to the implementation of tightening solutions. During the product design stage, customers are often troubled by issues such as a wide variety of product screws, production confusion caused by the mixed use of similar screws, difficulties in tightening operations in narrow spaces, and the inability to carry out automation due to constraints from tooling and part positioning. In response, ROBODEEP deeply intervenes in the design process in advance, participating in product structure design and tightening solution formulation, building a screw process database, and providing targeted customized tightening tool solutions for space-constrained environments. Entering the screw selection stage, production is often troubled by issues such as large batch quality fluctuations, lack of tightening data support, and poor tightening consistency. ROBODEEP, in partnership with BOSSARD, matches customers with high-quality screws that meet product requirements; it ensures batch-to-batch consistency through 100% dimensional inspection of every screw and a batch traceability system, while completing intelligent counting and visual inspection before packaging to avoid the risk of missing screws. At the tightening solution implementation stage, practical pain points are encountered, such as complex selection caused by diverse application scenarios, long integration and debugging cycles making implementation difficult, poor compatibility of control systems from different brands, and the difficulty of balancing automation accuracy and takt time. In response, ROBODEEP adopts a "process-specific robot + self-developed tightening tool" model, significantly compressing the overall machine price and greatly shortening the equipment delivery cycle. ROBODEEP is not simply expanding its products from tightening tools to robots. Instead, it focuses on industrial assembly scenarios to build a bottom-up product and technology system ranging from core execution and embodied operations to intelligent decision-making. Using the AI tightening gun as the basic execution unit and the embodied tightening robot to expand complex assembly capabilities, it connects equipment, data, and AI capabilities through ROBO DeepLink, ROBO DeepCore, and ROBO DeepMind, forming a complete closed loop from on-site execution to intelligent decision-making.
First Layer: Tightening Infrastructure The AI tightening gun is a core intelligent execution tool built by ROBODEEP for mid-to-high-end industrial assembly. It covers three configurations: straight-handle, pistol-grip, and angle-head, with a torque range of 0.01~104Nm. Based on high-precision torque control and stable execution, it supports up to 20 stages of customized tightening processes, and supports multiple monitoring methods such as torque/angle/slope/time, with a maximum curve acquisition frequency of up to 8k, as well as step-by-step results, final result traceability, and MES integration. The tightening module and the AI screw feeding system respectively serve as the standardized tightening execution unit and stable screw supply, providing complete process support for robot and automated tightening.
Second Layer: Embodied Tightening Robots When industrial assembly moves further from automated execution at a single station towards multi-variety, small-batch, and complex working conditions, the capability of a single tool is no longer sufficient to cover the complete task. Robots need to possess comprehensive capabilities to perceive the environment, understand the station, plan actions, and complete tightening. Therefore, ROBODEEP further integrates AI tightening capabilities with the robot body, visual perception, and motion control, forming embodied robot products for industrial tightening scenarios. The ROBODEEP SCARA embodied tightening robot uses a high-speed, high-precision SCARA platform as the execution body, integrating visual perception, motion control, and the AI tightening gun to form a closed loop of "perception—positioning—execution—feedback." At the same time, this product can complete multi-point positioning, fully automatic tightening, process inspection, and data traceability, and is especially suitable for multi-variety and fast-takt assembly scenarios in automotive, NEVs, 3C electronics, home appliances, and precision components. Targeting assembly tasks with more complex spatial postures such as side surfaces, inclined surfaces, deep cavities, and special-shaped workpieces, ROBODEEP launched the six-axis embodied tightening robot in the first quarter of 2026. It possesses more flexible spatial posture adjustment capabilities and can be applied to scenarios such as multi-directional fastening, complex paths, and flexible changeover. It is especially suitable for the assembly of automotive components, NEVs, robot joints, and complex assemblies, and has now achieved small-batch sales. Facing more complex industrial assembly task scenarios in the future, ROBODEEP has further developed the industrial embodied dual-arm assembly robot, focusing on dual-arm collaboration, visual perception, force control, task understanding, and assembly intelligence, to explore continuous multi-process operation capabilities such as grasping, positioning, inserting, tightening, and inspection. This robot is expected to be launched in August and will undergo field testing at the ROBODEEP factory and a well-known major automotive manufacturer.
Third Layer: Industrial Assembly Intelligence If the AI tightening gun and embodied tightening robot solve "how to execute," then ROBODEEP's industrial assembly intelligence system further solves "how to connect, how to judge, and how to continuously optimize." To this end, ROBODEEP has built an embodied intelligent assembly closed loop covering "cloud model—on-site intelligence—equipment control." The cloud-based ROBO DeepMind, as the foundational model for embodied assembly, is responsible for continuously learning key variables and patterns in the assembly and tightening processes from real industrial data; the AI box ROBO DeepCore deployed on the production line is equipped with NVIDIA high-performance computing chips, allowing a single unit to connect up to 20 tools, providing on-site real-time data analysis, task optimization, and intelligent scheduling capabilities; the ROBO DeepLink at the equipment control layer is equipped with consumer electronics-grade screens and interactive interfaces, capable of simultaneously controlling up to 50 tools to execute strategies and collecting real-time operational data from tools and robots. Data flows continuously among the three major ROBODEEP intelligent capability systems: on-site data is collected in real time, analyzed and optimized at the edge or in the cloud according to task requirements, and new strategies are generated and fed back to the equipment for execution. Meanwhile, with the continuous deployment of the system on real production lines, real tightening data from different industrial scenarios is continuously accumulated, and through screening, analysis, and model iteration, it continuously drives the capability evolution of the ROBODEEP large model, ultimately forming an embodied intelligence closed loop of "real data-driven—continuous model learning—strategy optimization—on-site execution—data re-precipitation."
03. 10 Years of Deep Cultivation: A Leading Domestic AI Tightening Player ROBODEEP, founded in 2016, is the only brand in the world that has fully self-developed AI tightening tools and AI tightening robots, and achieved mass production and sales. Compared with traditional automation equipment enterprises, ROBODEEP places more emphasis on the long-term accumulation of real industrial scenarios and tightening process know-how. After years of deep cultivation, the company has accumulated over 10 years of tightening process technology precipitation, deploying a cumulative total of over 6,000 tightening robots and over 10,000 AI tightening guns. Its products are widely used in major global manufacturing bases, covering more than 20 industry applications including NEVs, 3C electronics, medical, and home appliances. In continuous actual production applications, relying on large-scale equipment deployment, ROBODEEP has accumulated over 30 million hours of real-machine operational data from real industrial scenarios. Compared with data collected from laboratory simulations or single scenarios, real production line data naturally contains product differences, screw differences, material changes, etc., which are precisely the most difficult variables to handle when industrial robots move from the laboratory to mass production. A large number of real production line applications have also become an important foundation for ROBODEEP to continuously iterate its products, algorithms, and its own industrial embodied models, enabling it to form a closed loop from process know-how accumulation and real-machine data precipitation to product R&D and customer validation. Beyond customer and industrialization validation, the company has also attracted attention from the capital market. In 2025, ROBODEEP received seed round investment from Plum Ventures, and in the same year completed a PRE-A round of financing jointly invested by Zhuichuang Ventures, SenseTime Capital, and CoStone Capital. As of now, ROBODEEP has served over 150 leading industry customers, including BYD, Tesla, Apple, Huawei, Zhiyuan, Yunshenchu, FinDreams Battery, Sungrow, etc., covering multiple industries such as NEVs, 3C, humanoid robots, and lithium battery energy storage, becoming one of the most competitive embodied tightening robot brands globally. However, for ROBODEEP, tightening is the starting point for entering industrial assembly, not the endpoint. ROBODEEP is continuously evolving along the path of "AI tightening tools—embodied tightening robots—embodied industrial assembly robots." In other words, today's ROBODEEP has established competitive advantages through tightening, and in the future, it hopes to use tightening as a starting point to further expand the robot's task understanding and autonomous assembly capabilities, gradually transitioning from the world's most competitive embodied tightening robot brand to an embodied industrial assembly robot brand.
04. From Automotive to 3C: How AI Tightening Enters Real Production Lines?
- Automotive: From "Tightening Accuracy" to Process Consistency The assembly of NEV components has extremely high requirements for the tightening process. Especially in a market environment where vehicle prices are continuously dropping, how to precisely control enterprise production costs while ensuring assembly accuracy and quality has become a core problem that the industry urgently needs to solve. For example, for domain controllers with stringent requirements for stability and vibration resistance, ROBODEEP's intelligent screw tightening robot adopts a suction feeding method, efficiently completing the tightening of 8 screws within 25 seconds. Powered by a high-precision sensor-integrated tightening system, the torque is precisely controlled at 2.3N·m (±5%). This precise tightening strategy not only ensures the stability of the driver in high-vibration environments but also enhances the overall durability of the equipment, effectively avoiding performance instability caused by loosening, providing solid quality assurance for the drive system of NEVs. In practical applications, ROBODEEP's screw tightening technology can not only ensure the reliable installation of various components but also achieve precise control of screw torque, angle, etc., through multiple control methods, thereby meeting strict assembly standards and significantly improving production efficiency and quality consistency. What this case verifies is not just the tightening accuracy of the equipment, but more importantly, it solidifies tightening parameters, action takt times, and feeding processes into repeatable standard processes, providing a foundation for subsequent data collection and quality traceability.
- 3C: Flexible Demands Behind High-Density Tightening The 3C industry has developed rapidly in recent years, with product types and functions continuously enriching. Meanwhile, products are becoming increasingly precise and miniaturized, and internal structures are becoming more complex. Due to the complex and diverse internal parts and numerous tightening points of these products, the requirements for tightening accuracy are extremely high, making intelligent tightening processes crucial in this high-demand environment. The motherboard is the core component of a laptop. This component has a large number of screws with small diameters, placing extremely high demands on the tightening accuracy and takt time of the equipment. To effectively ensure product assembly efficiency, the ROBODEEP intelligent screw tightening robot adopts an electric cylinder suction feeding method, completing the tightening operation of 24 screws through the collaboration of four stations, with a takt time of only 12 seconds per station. Equipped with a self-developed AI tightening gun, it ensures that every screw meets strict standards. In practical applications, ROBODEEP's intelligent screw tightening robot demonstrates excellent precision and efficiency in the 3C assembly process, and is especially suitable for multi-screw, high-density tightening stations. Relying on its independently developed control system and efficient feeding method, the equipment significantly reduces assembly time and greatly improves production line efficiency while ensuring screw tightening accuracy. Compared with previous manual tightening, it not only improves the accuracy and consistency of this workpiece but also effectively avoids performance instability caused by loosening due to uneven tightening quality. For high-density tightening scenarios like 3C, the value of automation is not just to replace manual labor, but to transform numerous micro-actions that heavily rely on the operator's proficiency into quantifiable and traceable standard processes. When product models and tightening points change, this digital process capability can also more easily achieve rapid changeover through parameter and strategy adjustments.
Summary Tightening may seem to be one of the most basic processes in manufacturing, yet it is becoming an important window to observe the changes in smart manufacturing. In the past, the value of the tightening industry was more reflected in the tools themselves; however, with the continuous penetration of robots, AI, and industrial software, tightening is gradually evolving from an independent process into a key link that carries manufacturing data, process knowledge, and quality information. Especially against the backdrop of manufacturing industries such as NEVs and 3C electronics continuously pursuing cost reduction and efficiency improvement, what enterprises truly need is no longer just "a more accurate gun," but a set of assembly capabilities that can understand products, adapt to changes, and continuously optimize. From a broader industry perspective, future competition in the tightening industry will not stop at the comparison of hardware parameters. Whoever can truly connect tools, robots, processes, data, and AI will have the opportunity to further extend to the core position of the assembly link. The significance of AI tightening lies not only in making a single screw tightened faster and more accurately, but in that it is driving a traditional industrial process from "automatable" to "perceivable, judgable, and learnable." This is perhaps the change truly worth paying attention to in the next stage of the tightening industry.